La Française des Jeux (FDJ): With more than 30,000 points of sales in almost 11,000 municipalities, FDJ has built the largest network of French distributors, with a PoS available within 10 minutes nationwide. It also recently acquired Premier Lotteries Ireland, the operator which holds the exclusive rights to operate the Irish National Lottery until 2034. FDJ now plans to overhaul PLI’s lottery systems and revamp the 5,300 points-of-sale across its nationwide network.
Tipico: Tipico has over 1,000 retail shops across Germany in Austria, some of it owned by the Tipico group of companies and the others - franchised. The operator boasts about 50% share of the market in Germany, according to latest available data. Tipico offers sports fans attractive odds and an exciting live betting experience for over 30 types of sport, for up to 250,000 live sporting events per year. Throughout the past year, Tipico continued to invest heavily in the continuous development of technologies that make the sports betting experience better while putting emphasis on player protection.
Fortuna Entertainment Group: Fortuna Entertainment Group (FEG) operates around 3,500 retail shops, with a mix of own shops and partners across the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Croatia. Players can enjoy a wide range of betting products, virtual gaming, lotteries and slot machines where permitted. FEG designs, develops and operates its own Self Service Betting Terminals product which is fully integrated to the online wallet, meaning that customers can also use FEG’s SSBTs to deposit into online accounts. In 2023, FEG partnered with fellow operator in Poland, STS, for an anti-grey market campaign.
Codere: Codere’s gaming terminals can be found in leisure venues, gaming halls, hotels, bingos, casinos or racetracks in Europe and LatAm. In Spain, Codere is the market leader in retail sports betting and slot machines and the second largest machine operator in the country. The company also manages the Canoe Bingo Hall, the largest in Spain and one of the most famous in continental Europe. Codere also has a retail presence in Italy and is one of the leading players in the bingo sector there.
Paddy Power: Paddy Power is a central brand within Flutter Entertainment’s UK & Ireland division, known globally for its mischievous marketing campaigns. Paddy Power has one of the most vibrant retail estates in the sector with over 600 shops across UK&I, and is Ireland’s #1 bookmaker. In the past year, Paddy Power extended a number of deals with partners that have been key to its retail success: with Playtech for the provision of Self Service Betting Terminals, with Inspired Entertainment - for the provision of virtual sports products and with SIS - for access to global greyhound and horseracing content.
ATG: ATG is the premier horseracing and one of the leading sports betting operators in Sweden, serving approximately 1.3 million customers. Its retail network consists of nearly 1,500 outlets. ATG also has a presence at trotting and thoroughbred racetracks. During the year, ATG offers approximately 20,000 races on which bets can be placed. It also offers betting on top-league games within sports such as football, ice hockey and basketball. In 2023, the operator agreed a multi-year extension to its sportsbook partnership with leading supplier Kambi. The partnership, which began in 2018, has been a very important factor in ATG’s growth and success.
Hollywoodbets: Hollywoodbets has over 90 retail branches in South Africa and a couple in Mozambique. It offers betting on horseracing, football, cricket, rugby, tennis, motorsport and more. Every Hollywoodbets branch in South Africa supports a local charity, as well as a local sports team, as part of the company’s Social Responsibility Programme, commonly known as the Hollywoodbets MyCommunity Programme.
OPAP: OPAP, part of the Allwyn Group, is the leading operator in Greece and one of the most renowned in its sector globally. As part of its business strategy, the company is seeking to develop a thrilling retail betting proposition. The company saw an improvement in its retail segment throughout 2023. Recently, it announced an extended deal with leading supplier OpenBet, which saw the launch of a new betting platform across OPAP’s retail estate of more than 3,000 stores and enabled the operator to significantly enhance customers’ entertainment experience.
Bingoal: Bingoal is a family-owned company with more than 30 years’ experience in offering online and offline sports betting and casino games. It is now a well-established operator in Belgium and the Netherlands with a retail network of 350 betting outlets. The company recently announced a deal with top-tier supplier Kambi which will result in a new and improved sportsbook and sports betting experience for customers.
Meridianbet: Meridianbet is one of the largest sports betting groups, operating in over 20 EMEA markets. Over the course of the last three years, the company’s revenue increased by 20%. Meridianbet operates more than 700 shops across four continents. In early 2023, the operator continued investing in new and exciting betting options and launched Empty Bet - a unique feature allowing both retail and online customers to submit their own original wager ideas, unlike standard bet builders that let users aggregate multiple picks from various events or markets within a game into one single bet.
The Retail Operator of the Year category is sponsored by Atlas-IAC.
Atlas-IAC is a next-generation iGaming platform, crafted by a team of professionals with over two decades of experience in the entertainment industry. The platform and its components (Sportsbook, Casino, Risk Management Tool, CRM, Bonus Engine, Payment System, Business Analytics, Retail and CMS) are 100% built in-house and offer a hassle-free environment to automate operations, maximise profit and increase the quality of service. On top of its flagship product, the Sportsbook, Atlas-IAC offers its advanced platform as a turnkey solution for those who want to start their own entertainment business in a fast and efficient way.
